Painted Lady Kit | Interstate Shipping
Experience the wonders of the Painted Lady butterfly life cycle! This is a memorable and educational activity for families, schools, and loved ones. Watch as the caterpillars grow, turn into chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies. Releasing your butterflies into your garden is a meaningful and symbolic way to help you connect with nature. It’s a great way to experience The Glimmers (small moments of joy that can bring light to even the darkest days).
Includes —
4-5 Painted Lady larvae feeding on an agar-based instant diet
Digital instructions (via QR code)
Mesh Enclosure
Expect this entire process to take about three weeks.
Experience the wonders of the Painted Lady butterfly life cycle! This is a memorable and educational activity for families, schools, and loved ones. Watch as the caterpillars grow, turn into chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies. Releasing your butterflies into your garden is a meaningful and symbolic way to help you connect with nature. It’s a great way to experience The Glimmers (small moments of joy that can bring light to even the darkest days).
Includes —
4-5 Painted Lady larvae feeding on an agar-based instant diet
Digital instructions (via QR code)
Mesh Enclosure
Expect this entire process to take about three weeks.
Experience the wonders of the Painted Lady butterfly life cycle! This is a memorable and educational activity for families, schools, and loved ones. Watch as the caterpillars grow, turn into chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies. Releasing your butterflies into your garden is a meaningful and symbolic way to help you connect with nature. It’s a great way to experience The Glimmers (small moments of joy that can bring light to even the darkest days).
Includes —
4-5 Painted Lady larvae feeding on an agar-based instant diet
Digital instructions (via QR code)
Mesh Enclosure
Expect this entire process to take about three weeks.
Shipping & Delivery
Packaging
Caterpillars are placed inside cups that have been pre-filled with an agar-based instant diet. These cups are placed inside an insulated shipping box with an ice pack in preparation for shipment. Caterpillars are cold-blooded and their metabolism is greatly influenced by the ambient temperature. This means that when the caterpillars are cool, they go somewhat “dormant.” We want to mimic this naturally occurring phenomenon to ensure that the caterpillars to not overheat during shipment and make it to their final destination safely.
Shipping
We require 2-Day or overnight shipping for all caterpillar purchases. Expedited shipping paired with an insulated box & ice pack ensures that your caterpillars arrive before the ice packs stop doing their job.
States to which we are able to ship are highlighted in green— We cannot ship to CT or HI.
Delivery
Track your order so that you can be at home when your package arrives. Bring your package inside away from the summer heat as soon as possible to avoid potential overheating on your front porch. Open your package immediately, inspect the contents, and read & follow the provided release instructions. Upon delivery, it is important to check on your caterpillars ASAP.
When exposed to warmer temperatures the caterpillars typically begin to crawl around, unless they are preparing to molt. If they are preparing to molt, they will not move (they are likely not dead, simply preparing to make allow more space to grow). More caterpillar care instructions can be found under the “care” tab.
Care
We believe in teaching people how to raise healthy butterflies— That’s why we’ve put together a step-by-step guide that will help make your butterfly adventure a success!
Open & Inspect
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Open your box and make sure everything looks okay before you proceed. When caterpillars are exposed to warmer ambient temperatures, they typically begin to move very slightly unless they are preparing to molt. If they are preparing to molt, they will not move. Do not remove your caterpillars from their containers.
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If in the very rare occasion your shipping box should be significantly damaged during transit, do NOT throw your box or its contents away. Save your box and its contents so that you can take pictures and file a claim with UPS.
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We guarantee arrive-alive. Upon unboxing should you discover that there is a problem with the contents of your order, please contact us immediately. To qualify for the guarantee, we require contact within one hour of delivery. We are not responsible for shipments unless they are opened at the time of delivery.
Please send us an email to thehatcherybutterflies+URGENT@gmail.com and call/text us at (316) 226-9473. If The Hatchery is not contacted at time of delivery the guarantee is void.
Follow the Provided Instructions
Release Butterflies
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It's time! Release your butterflies outside (preferably at temperatures higher than 65degF on a sunny day).
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If you can’t release your butterflies (for example due to poor weather), put their enclosure in a cool place (such as a basement) inside an opaque box. Remember, cool temperatures slow down a butterfly’s movements and darkness triggers a butterfly’s response to roost (not move). Butterflies do not need to feed for 24-48 hours after emerging, so don’t worry about them needing to eat before they are released the next day.
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Should you need to hold onto your butterflies, you can feed them by placing a fresh paper towel onto a small plate and saturate it with regular Gatorade (yes, Gatorade!)--we don't recommend the red or the orange, because those tend to stain the surfaces beneath your enclosure! Change out your paper towel daily and place them onto clean plates to avoid any bacterial buildup or fermentation.
Disinfect Supplies
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Clean your enclosures using mild dish soap and rinse. Soak of your rearing supplies for a few mintues in a mild bleach solution (akin to 1:20 bleach to water) to set yourself up for success with any future butterfly rearing adventures.
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Celebrate your success!
Guarantee
We guarantee arrive-alive. Upon unboxing should you discover that there is a problem with the contents of your order, please contact us immediately. To qualify for the guarantee, we require contact within one hour of delivery. We are not responsible for shipments unless they are opened at the time of delivery.
We require pictures of all damaged products so that we may properly discern what went wrong. On the rare occasion that your caterpillars have arrived dead, we require that your picture includes ALL of the dead larvae. For example, you ordered ten caterpillars and five of them arrived dead—we would need one photo of all five caterpillars together to qualify for the guarantee.
To reiterate, if your shipping box should be significantly damaged during transit, do NOT throw your box or its contents away. Save your box and its contents so that you can take pictures and file a claim with UPS. Please also send us your photos so that we may be better able to handle situations such as this with our courier.
Please send us an email with photos of the problem to thehatcherybutterflies+URGENT@gmail.com and call/text us at (316) 226-9473. If The Hatchery is not contacted at time of delivery, the guarantee is void. If we do not receive photos via email within 24 hours, the guarantee is void.